Dead Luck
by lilyduveau
Summary: Beckett is a maid that works at the hotel Castle is staying at. A Castle AU based on the movie 'Maid in Manhattan.'
1. Chapter 1

"You've gotta be kidding me," the driver said, tapping impatiently on the steering wheel. "You're holding up the whole line, lady!"

Kate wished she'd had a car. It wasn't the first time, however, that she realized it wouldn't do them much good. New York Traffic? No thanks. Stuck in the car loop at Alexis's school, waiting for the other parents to get a move on? Nope. Not that they'd have any way to pay for it.

Alexis produces two quarters, and moves to the only two seats left on the bus that are together once Kate drops them into the fare box. The bus is old, a model she can barely believe is still allowed on the road. It smells like old bus a little, too. If they'd missed this bus, she would have been late to work and Alexis would have been late to school. She's already gotten enough late slips. "Will I get in trouble if I don't do my speech? I'm not feeling it."

Alexis wasn't a slacker. "What do you mean you're not feeling it? You've been practicing for months. I can't wait to hear it!"

"It's boring."

"Not to me. Not to grandma; not to your dad."

Alexis suddenly tuns to her, eager to speak. "I thought we were meeting him after."

"No way. He's coming and then you guys are going camping over the weekend, remember?" She was hoping that Alexis would be excited to go. She had never gone camping. Somehow she thought nothing would keep her happy, when it came to her father. Though she didn't want to spend the rest of her life with him, she wished they had at least gotten along better. She also wished he cared about Alexis, but she knew his mind wouldn't change.

"No, mom. He'll come late if he even comes at all, and everyone will see. I don't want to be that kid anymore," Alexis said, looking away from Kate. The bus starts moving,

"Hey, look at me. You go a little something here..." She trailed off, pecking her face with kisses.

"Ma! Mom, please stop!" Alexis said, smiling and laughing at the same time.

This was the Alexis she always wanted to see.

* * *

After dropping Alexis off at her school, she walked to the nearest coffee shop. It wasn't amazing, but she always had a few minutes to spare before getting on her next bus and she wouldn't have enough time to get her coffee elsewhere. She opened her purse while walking there, shuffling things around to see if she had any spare change. Miraculously, she found a two dollar bill among the mess. Which reminded her of the fact that she didn't know where Alexis had gotten the money to pay for their bus fare. Well, it meant a coffee for Kate and a slightly less irritable bus driver.

She rushed out of the coffee shop, speed walking to her hotel. The New York Palace was one of the best hotels in Manhattan. Which meant it was constantly busy. Kate herself had more than fifteen rooms a time, but whenever a special guest was at the hotel, that number was lowered... and Kate became maid, butler, concierge and just about everything else just to cater to the needs of some rich person. Usually it wasn't too bad, but it made her ashamed to think that sometimes she was envious of them.

Lanie, another maid at the hotel (and one of her only friends) was often assigned to the rooms with her, especially if the special guest in question was female.

So Kate rushed downstairs to the locker rooms so she could put on her maid uniform. It came in six sizes, which used to make her hysterical. Putting on the extremely modest piece of fabric while looking around the room, seeing the plethora of dramatically different bodies. She doesn't have time to focus on such things anymore. Lanie brings her out of her daydreams.

"You know, there's an opening in Management..."

"And _you_ know that they wouldn't put a maid in to be a Manager, Lanie," Kate said, now lifting up her shoe onto the bench beside her locker to tie the laces.

"I've heard them talk, Kate. They're going to hire _in-house_! Think: you, running a hotel. Rags to riches. Maybe even get a man because of it," she says, laughing because they both know that Kate doesn't have the time for that now. Between Alexis and her job and trying to get in at least six hours of sleep without disappointing _someone?_ Her definition of difficult. Her life.

"Let's just get a move on, Lanie."

* * *

"Sentimental favorite Richard Castle, blah, blah, blah... son of the late senator blah, blah, blah... is expected to run for his father's seat in the next election. That's it! I mean, nothing wrong! All respectful."

Richard Castle knew when Jerry lied to him. It had been years, he wasn't an idiot. He remembered what the people in the paper had written about his father. Except now, they weren't writing about his father. They were writing about him. He didn't mind it as much, the fact that he knew most of it was fake, as much as the small truths sprinkled throughout some of the articles. Things he doesn't tell people. Things he knows he shouldn't dwell on. Too late.

"Give it to me," he says, reaching over the table in the middle of the room they've just entered. He doesn't even pay attention to the suite.

"I wasn't even finished!"

Jerry reluctantly gives up the newspaper, letting Rick skim the words about himself. "Senator favorite and playboy: political assemblyman Richard Castle. Guess you missed a few words there, Jerry," he says sarcastically. He can deal with the newspapers. Why does Jerry have to lie to him? He isn't a child anymore.

"What, playboy? That's a compliment," Jerry cuts in, before Rick continues reading.

"Who called off his engagement last week to _uber babe_ Gina Cowell. He arrives in town solo. Respectful, huh?"

He places the paper down on the table and takes off his jacket. He doesn't have time for these things. Well, he has lots of time. But spending it on this is just a waste. "Well," Jerry begins. "You are a public figure, and it's just news. They always have something new to say the next day!"

"Except that the news is always about me, and new things make it worse. I don't _want_ to fuel the flames. We weren't even engaged. Whose side are you on?"

"Yours. Which is why it might be nice if you could listen to me, even once in a while, maybe?"

* * *

 **A/N: When Kate found the two dollar bill in her purse, I almost wrote toonie(two dollar coin in Canada). We do not have two dollar bills in Canada. *claps for Canadians***

 **Review? If you do, sign in so I can thank you! If not, reading the fic is enough for me. I love getting feedback for my work! ;) Anyone else doing NaNo? Might start this as my July novel, so you might be getting some extra chapters here and there... Story should update once a week. If not, I am trapped in the viscous cycle of eating and sleeping and watching Netflix (I don't actually have Netflix ): ). If you write, you know. Reviews make me want to write. ;)**


	2. Chapter 2

The floor butler continued to talk - or monologue, really - and Castle moved about his room, introducing everyone that was with him. "Hey, boy!" The dog was drawn to his voice and he threw the Frisbee over his dog and to one of his guards. Thankfully, the guard - who he admittedly didn't know very well, (should he?) - ignores Jerry as he calls him.

"Castle."

He ignores it too."We're going to that thing I told you about, on Monday night-"

"No."

"Don't be difficult."

The Frisbee flies back to him and he has to jump to catch it. He's already weary enough that they'll break something. Not that it would matter much. "C'mere Royal!"

"See, it's times like these I really wish your father was here to back me up." Castle sharpens at that, a swift change from his playful attitude a second earlier.

"What?"

"You heard me. I wish your father was here. Maybe you would actually listen to him."

"My father was... Not a father to me. I don't even need to go to all of these, and just because he did doesn't mean that's the 'road to success.'" He put his hands up and made quotations with his fingers, too. He makes his way across the room, unable to listen to Siegel's blabber anymore. It isn't uncharacteristic for him, but he'll admit it can become overwhelming.

"Where are you going?"

"To the bathroom. Are you going to give me a moment or should I make some space for you on the counter?"

"I'd actually prefer to stay here, thanks. Maybe next time I'll join you, though."

He would have laughed but he kept his resolve steady. Sometimes Siegel really got on his nerves. Especially when he brought up his father. Would it kill the man to shut up every once in a while?

He opened the door hurriedly and closed it at the same pace, rushing to the toilet and pulling down his fly.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" He jumped back, hitting his head on the wall behind him.

"Shoot, I can get you some ice, I-"

Well. This was certainly awkward. "No, no it's fine, I'll be fine. You can leave."

She closed the door behind herself, running out of the room faster than he had entered. He massaged his head lightly, resting it on the tiles behind him. Could he ever do anything right these days? He laughed silently to himself. Probably not.

* * *

She was eternally fucked. Where was she even going to work? Even if they never fired her, she would never get that position in management now. Not that it was a huge deal, she could just say he'd stormed in - he did - and she didn't have time to leave. She knew she was blowing it out of proportion, but also couldn't recall another time she'd been more mortified. She sighed softly once she was out of the suite. Great. She left her cart in the bathroom. She had to go _back_. She could stab herself. She wanted to wait a few minutes so that he was for sure out of the bathroom but the thought of going back inside was mortifying. She could still hear them talking and there was no way she was going inside there but... she needed her cart.

Should she knock? This wasn't in her training manual. Then she heard the familiar closing of the same bathroom doors in every suite. And then the opening of the door she was standing in front of. "Oh, um... I left my cart..."

She points behind him. "Over there."

He opens the door fully and gives her a sheepish smile before she walks in briskly. As expected, she keeps her head down and wheels her cart out in seconds, trying to get away as quickly as she can.

"If you need anything, just -"

"I know, thanks."

Siegel turned to him after he had closed the door. "What was that about?"

* * *

Kate was exhausted. Between bumping into Richard Castle to setting up Meredith's room, and now listening to her talk about making her (ex?)boyfriend jealous, she knew that when she finally got to sit down, it wouldn't be much of a break. Alexis' speech was about politics, which would make it all that much more difficult to try not to fall asleep. She couldn't remember the last time she even voted for an election.

And now, the goddess - a name Lanie and the other maids had given to everyone who stayed in a suite, along with rich bitch, trust fund brat, and a whole slew of other words she never really enjoyed repeating. (She had to admit, albeit, rich bitch was catchy) - was asking her to do something she knew she didn't have time for.

"Oh, you look like someone who knows the difference between taupe and caramel," she said, almost pouting.

She tried to tell her she wasn't the person for the job, that shopping was something a conceirge would do, but Meredith had insisted. "Just three pantyhose, that's all."

If it wasn't for the mishap this morning, she would have tossed it onto someone else, but she really couldn't risk it. Looking back, it wasn't a big deal, but it was really no trouble to the hotel to hire one maid, especially if these people were the ones paying the most to stay there in the first place.

She was used to being ignored, because that was her job, to be invisible - no matter how badly the day was going. Today, it seemed she could simply not stay out of the limelight.

She grabbed the things from Meredith's room that needed to be pressed and gave them to Lanie to finish. She didn't usually work in the suites, and had more time on her hands than Kate did. Over the years, she probably owed Lanie more than an arm and a leg. Most likely all of her limbs, if not her vital organs.

By the time she had gotten back to the hotel, she had to hand off her bags to a conceirge - she noted the slight irony - and grabbed her things as quickly as she possibly could before meeting her mother out front. She was just tossing her coat over her uniform before she saw her.

"Come, on you have time to change, her speech isn't for another half hour," she said kindly, knowing advice wasn't something Kate readily accepted often.

"A half hour?" Kate threw her handbag strap onto her shoulder before she began to run to the subway station. "We're already late!"

She called Will the second she was out of the subway station. She was only a few minutes away from the school and he hardly ever bothered to pick up - which never really worked in her favor.

Miraculously, he picked up on the third ring. "Kate? Look I know I said I would be there but-"

"No, _Will_ , you can't back out now! You told me and Alexis you would be here! What about your weekend trip? _Please_ don't do this to her."

She knows that bringing up Alexis makes him feel guilty (not guilty enough, if he won't give the girl two days of his time) - she also knows that sometimes he can make it, he just doesn't want to.

"Look, Kate I said I was sorry. I can't just drop my case. You _know_ how it is. "

She does, but she hangs up anyway. Thankfully, her mother doesn't say anything, and soon they're in front of Alexis's school.

They jog into the gym, and quickly find a pair of free seats. Most of the seats are empty towards the back. Alexis is about to go on stage, and Kate flashes a quick smile to her when their eyes meet.

* * *

She messed up. As much as she _hated_ listening to the other kid's speeches and these after school performances (minus Alexis's) she'd never want this to happen to any of them. So as a result of this painful performance, her daughter was now crying backstage, and her mother couldn't even stay to help.

"You just stumbled over your words, okay? It happens to everyone."

"They were laughing at me."

"You still did great. You'll do even better next time," Kate says, bringing Alexis up onto her feet, and bringing their hands together. The theater has long since been vacated, but a few teachers remain to clean up the stage.

"Mom, am I still going to dad's for the weekend?"

"No, sweetheart, he had to stay behind for some work, but I'm sure he's already planning the next time he can see you. You're gonna stay at the hotel for the weekend."

Alexis simply nods her head.

* * *

 **A/N: So... sorry? This has been sitting on my computer for a week, but I haven't had much time to edit it, and I've already rewritten it a few times. Hope this is okay?Thanks for reading. Would love to hear what you think. x**


End file.
